F-150 Lightning Power Play: Enhancing Home Energy Independence

Truck owners are now used to tapping a variety of features to get things done. Now, with the all-electric F-150 Lightning pick up, Ford is the first in the U.S. to offer customers the ability to power their homes with an electric truck when the grid goes dark.

Ford and F-Series are partnering with Sunrun, the nation’s leading solar company, to enhance home energy management, leveraging the substantial onboard battery capability of the all-electric F-150 Lightning.

“F-150 Lightning brings new innovations to customers, including the ability to power their homes when they need it most,” said Matt Stover, Ford charging and energy services director. “Teaming up with Sunrun leverages their expertise to bring solar power to even more customers, giving them the chance to turn their truck into an incredible energy storage source – and future truck features can help accelerate the development of a less carbon-intensive grid.”

Sunrun is the preferred installer of F-150 Lightning home charging solutions, including the 80-amp Ford Charge Station Pro and Home Integration System. The Home Integration System enables the F-150 Lightning to store and supply power to homes in a variety of ways. Sunrun will also offer home solar options to customers in select areas who are interested in leveraging more renewable energy.

Revolutionary Power at Home

Ford Intelligent Backup Power is making its debut on the F-150 Lightning! It gives customers the ability to use bidirectional power technology from their truck to provide energy to their homes during an outage.

The F-150 Lightning extended-range battery system can store 131 kilowatt-hours of energy and deliver up to 9.6 kilowatts of power in a cleaner, quieter, more efficient way versus gasoline-powered generators, and with greater capacity than many wall battery units. F-150 Lightning can also offer lower-cost energy storage in a product customers already own – their truck.

With Ford Intelligent Backup Power and the Home Integration System, F-150 Lightning automatically kicks in to power your home if the grid goes down. Once power is restored, the system automatically reverts back to utility power. Based on an average U.S. home at 30 kilowatt-hours of use per day, F-150 Lightning with extended-range battery provides full home power for up to three days, or as long as 10 days when used in conjunction with solar power or rationing.

Simplifying Home Installation

To benefit from Ford Intelligent Backup Power and future energy management solutions, customers need to equip their home with the Ford Charge Station Pro and Home Integration System, which is composed of a power inverter plus a dark start battery and transfer switch, enabling the two-way power flow.

Buyers of the extended-range F-150 Lightning automatically receive the Ford Charge Station Pro. Standard-range truck customers can purchase the 80-amp Ford Charge Station Pro and pay for activation separately. The Home Integration System – developed together with Sunrun – can be purchased through Sunrun this spring.

In the future, Ford will introduce additional F-150 Lightning features to help customers potentially save money and take pressure off the electric grid during peak usage. Ford Intelligent Power, for example, will allow customers to power their homes with their truck’s battery when electricity rates are higher, while charging the truck when rates are lower – or from their own solar-powered rooftop. This load shift can also help buffer the load on the nation’s grid and help reduce the use of higher carbon energy without affecting daily routines or charging schedules.